Fic that needs a name
by ProngsGirl88
Summary: hmmm..... let's just say that this is an L/J, and that it's is A LOT funnier than my last one, and starts off when they're all in 5th year. check it out, i'm sure u'll all like it!
1. Purple pidgeons, amoung other things

Disclaimer: ALL OF THE CHARACTER/PLACES/THINGS THAT YOU RECOGNIZE BELONG TO J.K. ROWLING, AND SINCE I'M OBVIOUSLY NOT HER, THEY UNFORTUNATELY DON'T BELONG TO ME!!!!!!!!! Thank you for your time! Have a nice day!

Hey to all of you R&Rers out there, this is my new fic that I was telling you about. It's a lot different from my other ones, but I hope you like it just the same! Now go read, and don't forget to review!! (anyone who does, gets put on my *Honorable Mentions* list at the beginning of every chapter after this one!)

Oh, and this title is only temporary. You see, I need a little help coming up with one, so if anyone has any ideas, go ahead and send them to me in a review!!

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"Just don't even look Lily." Jo said to her friend as they made their way to their desks at the beginning of Transfiguration class.

"Who would want to?" Lily replied. "They're all a bunch of…..idiots!"

"Oh, come on! Sure, James, Sirius, and Peter are pervs, but that doesn't mean Remus is! He's actually quite sweet!" persisted the third member of their group, Beth. If you haven't figured it out yet, they're talking about, who else? The Marauders.

"Fine, Remus isn't a jerk, but the rest are."  Compromised Jo.

The three friends are 5th year Gryffindors, and current members of the MHU (Marauders Haters United). The trio had been terrorized by the terrible four ever since they had met at the beginning of first year on the Hogwarts Express. The girls had been washing up after lunch in the bathroom, when the boys sent Lucias Malfoy careening through the doorway on top of a trolley. Jo and Beth managed to move safely out of the way, but Lily, in her haste, lost her balance and fell through one of the doors to a stall, landing with a "sploosh" in the toilet.

The Marauders, who had been standing at the bathroom door to admire their handiwork, found this incredibly amusing.

Luckily, at that point, the woman who had been running the trolley appeared, and took control of the situation. Beth and Jo ended up helping Lily to clean up, and in the process, the three became great friends.

Now, over four years later, the three girls still detested the boys. They weren't holding just one grudge against them, though. After that day on the Hogwarts Express, the boys had decided to make Lily, Beth and Jo their personal "guinea pigs" for any new prank they came up with. On top of that, the boys had become incredibly popular as the years went by (especially James and Sirius), and constantly had girls drooling all over them (well maybe not Peter, but you get the idea).

This, of course, only caused the three girls to detest the boys even more.

"Good-morning class." Said Professor McGonagall rather cheerfully as she changed back into her human form. This was the first class of the day.

The class muttered a mixture of groggy replies, creating a generally inaudible moan. It was Monday morning, and most of the students would have been very obliged to still be in their beds.

McGonagall appeared indifferent to this response, and continued on.

"Today we will be practicing the _Mesangarto spell (a/n my own creation!). For those of you who choose to catch up on lost sleep last Friday, the __Mesangarto spell is used to turn messages written on parchment into pigeons. The size and color of the pigeon generated from the spell depends on the length on the message and the color of the ink used to write it. Once transformed, all you must do is instruct the bird as to where and to whom the message is to be delivered. The recipient then simply casts the reverse spell, _Mesago_._

"Today in class, you will be working in groups of two. You will take turns sending messages to each other. You and your partner go on opposing walls. I will be walking around in case anyone is in need of assistance. Any questions?"

Peter raised his hand.

"Yes, Mr. Pettigrew?"

"Can I borrow a bottle of ink? Sirius kind of spilt mine."

Lily looked over at the Marauders. Sure enough, Sirius had indeed "spilt" Peter's ink bottle. In fact, it had conveniently spilt all over the front of the shirt of a Ravenclaw girl sitting next to him. He was now greatly indulged in helping to "clean" her off.

Lily shook her head in disgust.

Professor McGonagall happened to notice this too, and was also utterly revolted.

"Mr. Black!" she cried, completely appalled. "Leave Ms. Ainsworth alone! It's bad enough that you've spilt ink all over her, the last thing she needs are your hands tossed in as well!"

Several students burst out in laughter at what this statement could suggest. This only upset her more, and put her in the right mind to punish the entire class.

"I was going to allow you to choose your own partners," she began, "but after such displays of immaturity, "she eyed Sirius, "I am questioning your ability to handle such a responsibility."

At this, the class let out a large groan at what would inevitably follow, and all heads turned to glare at Sirius.

"Therefore," McGonagall continued, "I will select your partners for you."

"This is just great." Muttered Lily. "Who knows who we'll end up with now!"

"Leave it to Sirius to get McGonagall mad, even on a Monday morning." Added Jo.

"At least _we_ won't have to choose who's working alone this time!" piped in Beth, ever the optimist.

They were interrupted as McGonagall finished creating a mental list of groups in her head, and began announcing them to everyone's dismay.

"Miss Cromwell with….Mr. Haskins. Mr. Keigwin with….Miss Stratton. Miss Ockley with….Mr. Lupin (Beth's rater gloomy face suddenly lit up at this). Mr. Black with….Miss Sheldon ("You've got to be kidding me!" Jo complained none too quietly). Mr. Potter with…."

'Please not me! Please not me!' Lily mentally begged as she crossed both her fingers.

"….Miss Evans."

She continued on through the list until everyone had a partner. She then had the groups line up opposite each other along the walls. Satisfied with her work (almost every student's face was now glum), she instructed them to begin.

James went first. His blue pigeon came careening through the air, barely avoiding a collision with Frank Longbottom's bird. Having safely completed its journey, it landed neatly on top of Lily's head.

"Get off!" she said, irritated, sending it falling to the floor. "_Mesago_." Lily cast quickly, before anyone had a chance to step on it.

Picking the note up off the floor, she read James's message out loud. '_Hello Lily! You're looking awfully fiery today!_''

"You'd think that after five years they'd be getting a little tired of the red-head jokes." Commented Jo. The two girls had managed to stay next to each other.

Lily grunted at this, before ripping off a piece of parchment and writing a reply.

Then she transfigured the tiny piece of parchment baring only one word, '_thanx_', into the tiniest purple pigeon she had ever seen. Lily then commanded it to deliver the message to James, before sitting back and waiting for a reply.

All too soon for Lily, did another blue pigeon come catapulting her way. This one seemed even clumsier than the one before it, and at about half-way across the room, went into a complete tail-spin in her direction.

Noting its kamikaze** dive, and not intending to get impaled by a beak, Lily stepped neatly out of the way, allowing the poor bird to crash into a wall.**

Watching as it slowly slid to the floor, Lily transfigured it back into its original state, for the safety of man kind. Then, gingerly picking up the slip of parchment, she read James's reply.

_"Not very talkative today, are we?"_

_"No." Lily wrote back._

_"And why is that, my bitter-sweet flower?" was his reply._

_"I'm tired."_

_"And what cruel twist of fate would cause such beauty as yourself to be deprived of their precious sleep?"_

_"As if you don't know!"_

If I forgot to mention it before, last night, the Marauders moved half of the lake, ducks and all, into the girls' dorm. They each woke to different varieties of the unpleasant sensation of having a frog climb on your face, at three in the morning. With their wands missing, and soaked to the bone from attempting to open door (the weight of the water was too strong), they were forced to bail the water out the window (they later discovered their wands lying neatly on a table in the common room.).

_"I haven't the scantest idea as to what you are talking about!" James responded._

_"By Merlin's beard you don't! You and your sickening friends, who are only a half-step above Slytherins I might add, dumped half of the lake into our dorms last night at __3:00 a.m.__! We spent the rest off the night trying to clean it all up! So don't give me 'I haven't the scantest idea as to what you're talking about'!!!"_

_"Why Lily, you sound upset! Myself, and my three charming companions were merely trying to give you delightful young ladies a _midnight___ swim."_

_"Of course I'm upset, you little……Bugger!" Lily sat there fuming after transfiguring the last message. How could one guy possibly make her this upset? She didn't have much time to ponder this, however, as James's reply pigeon came hurtling across the room only a few seconds later._

_"Well, in that case, I believe you're in a little need of cheering up!"_

Lily heard the spell word _"Rictusempra" cast on the other side of the room. She looked up just in time to see the purple sparks of the tickling spell come hurtling in her direction._

Suddenly, Lily collapsed on the ground with fits of uncontrollable laughter, as the uncomfortable sensation of a thousand invisible hands all tickling her at once cascaded over her.

"_Disa_…._Disasemp….__Dis………" Lily struggled to cast the counter charm, __Disasepmra. "Jo! A little…..help………PLEASE!!!!" She gasped._

Jo herself almost fell to ground with laughter at the humorous sight of Lily, but managed to control herself enough to cast the spell.

Once she had caught her breath, the now outraged Lily jumped to her feet, bringing a charm to mind.

"_Tarantallegra_!"

On the other side of the room, one of the Marauders suddenly had the urge to dance. In fact, James seemed to have convinced himself that he was the new Saint of the Step. In reality, that particular style of dancing happened to be the first one to pop into Lily's head after she cast the spell (f.y.i., the caster of the spell gets to choose how the victim dances).

By now, quite a few students had begun to notice the two's antics, and were now having quite a few chuckles at James's odd display.

After having her own set of laughs at the Marauder's Irish step-dancing, Lily decided to change moods and move on to a waltz.

_"This should be interesting." She thought to herself, referring to the fact that James had no partner and would be dancing with air._

To Lily's utter-most surprise, not to mention horror, James decided to find himself a partner, who just so happened to be her.

"Hello, Lily dearest." He said with a smile, his ego not the least bit affected by the rather embarrassing spell. "Wonderful day for a dance!"

Lily was so startled by this sudden predicament, that the words of the counter-charm, along with every other word in her vocabulary, completely vanished from her mind, leaving her with only the ability to stare dumbly at James as she followed his lead. Eventually, the notion to attempt to break free of James's grip registered in her mind. She struggled, but to no avail, as James was rather strong, (he's the captain of the Gryffindor Quidditch team, don't ya know!). She was forced to instead simply glide along with him, racking her brain for the reverse charm.

James was either as dumb as he looked, or simply didn't care about ending the spell. In fact, he seemed to be using the situation to show off his rather extraordinary dance skills.

He was apparently so interested in doing this in fact, that just as the words of the counter-spell found their way back into Lily's mind, he backed them right into Professor McGonagall's desk. The two went careening over the top, Lily ending her _"Finite" with a shriek._

They landed in a rather awkward position on the floor, with James lying spread eagle with Lily laying face-down on top of him.

The pair sat there for a few moments, recovering from shock. Then Lily suddenly regained he senses and scrambled off of him.

Sitting up and leaning on her right arm fro support, Lily was surprised to discover that she immediately felt a sharp pain in the palm of her hand.

"Geez! Lily, are you alright?" James said, startled to see a small stream of blood running down her arm as she lifted it up to see what was wrong.

"Miss Evans! Mr. Potter! What in Gandalf's name are you doing!?!?" Professor McGonagall had finally noticed the antics of her students, and was now determined to put an end to their fun.

James jumped to his feet, five different excuses already on the tip of his tongue. He didn't have any chance to use them, however, as McGonagall noticed the red river of blood running down Lily's arm and trickling off her elbow.

"Miss Evans!" she exclaimed once again, only this time with a hint of concern. "What in heaven's name has happened to your arm?!"

"Huh…..wha? Oh umm….I'm..not..sure…." Lily said distractedly. It seemed that her lack of sleep from the night before had finally caught up with her. The room began to turn; faces blurred. She found the ground was suddenly tilting beneath her feet. "Professor…..I don't feel so goo……"

Lily never finished her sentence. Instead, she fainted.

She fell backward, into James's startled arms.

"Miss Evans!" McGonagall cried for the third time that morning. "Oh the poor girl! Undoubtedly this is the result of some foolish prank of yours, Mr. Potter!" she scolded angrily. "Mr. Lupin!"

"Yes, Professor?"

"Help Mr. Potter bring Miss Evans to the Hospital Wing. Afterwards, Mr. Potter, report back to me and we will make a date for your detention."

James was stunned. "But Professor! I…."

"No buts, Mr. Potter! Now hurry up and get Miss Evans to Madame Pomfrey!"

James wisely decided to drop his argument there; realizing persisting would only gain him more punishment. Taking Lily in his arms, being careful to avoid her right arm (it had stopped bleeding, but he didn't want to chance starting it again), he and Remus headed out the door.

Once they were out of earshot of the Transfiguration room, Remus bombarded James with questions.

"What on earth did you do to the poor girl, James?!"

"Nothing!! At least not anything other than our prank last night!"

Remus raised an eyebrow, clearly displaying his disbelief at this statement.

"What?" James said in defense, before relenting. "Okay, okay, so I cast a tickling charm on her in class, but that was only to cheer her up! Then she went and cast _Tarantallegra_ on me, and made me do Irish step-dancing before having me do a waltz, during which I made her dance with me so that I wouldn't look like an idiot, dancing with air, before we collided with McGonagall's desk and she cut her self on some random pointy object, before fainting in my arms!" he stopped, gasping for breath.

"You're right James, you really did nothing." Remarked Remus, rolling (a/n hee-hee, alliteration!) his eyes.

"Hey, so maybe I _did bug her a little, but no more than usual, and definitely not enough for her to go and faint like that! In fact, I still don't get what caused her to keel-over like that."_

"She didn't 'keel-over' James, that would mean she died. But to answer your question, loss of blood maybe?"

"Nah, she didn't lose _that much blood."_

Remus just shrugged his shoulders at this.

"You're a lot of help." James said irritably.

Remus just made another shrug.

"_Please_ tell me that you at least agree with me on the fact that I don't deserve a detention for what happened today."

Remus began to shrug again, but James gave him a look, that, if looks could kill, Remus would have been dead, cremated, and sitting in a jar on the mantle piece next to his great-aunt Linda. Needless to say, he quickly exchanged his shrug for an exaggerated nod.

"Good luck convincing _McGonagall to see things that way." Remus added after a few moments._

"Maybe Lily would vouch for me." James replied after a moment of reflective thought.

"And maybe someday Snape will take a bath too."

"Yeah, maybe you're right."

"Of course I am! Besides, I doubt Lily will be feeling well soon enough to save your arse anyway."

By now, the two boys had finished climbing the many flights of changing staircases to the floor on which the Hospital Wing was located.

They opened the door slowly and as quietly as possible, knowing from past experiences that Madame Pomfrey did not, let's say _appreciate, people who disturbed her patients._

The two boys tip-toed into the room, glancing around for Madame Pomfrey. They spotted her right away, attempting to instruct her new apprentice, Gilderoy Lockhart, on the proper way to mend a broken arm. The poor boy a great enthusiasm for the art of magical medicine, but was regretfully absolutely horrid at it.

The unfortunate 3rd year Lockhart was practicing with looked on with terror as her arm went from being simply broken, to having absolutely no bones at all. Madame Pomfrey cursed him for his mistake, and sent him back to the Hufflepuff dormitories.

It wasn't until after she had forced a glass of Skel-O-Grow down the 3rd year's throat, along with a sleeping draught, that Madame Pomfrey was aware of the boys and their unconscious cargo's presence.

"What in heaven's name has happened to Miss Evans!?" she exclaimed.

"There was a small, umm…. accident, in Transfiguration." Supplied James, sheepishly.

"I would have to call that an under-statement on your part, Mr. Potter, judging by the dreadful appearance of the poor thing! Well, never mind that. Bring Miss Evans over here. Watch her head!" James had nearly rammed Lily's skull into the metal foot-board as he attempted to 'gracefully' carry her between the two beds, and place her down.

When the unconscious Lily was safely positioned on the bed, Madame Pomfrey shooed the two boys back off to their classes.

James and Remus slowly made their way back down the tangle of staircases, both wondering what task was in store for James's punishment _this_ time.

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Now go ahead and push the little button in the corner there. Come on, I know you can do it! (and don't forget to send me any ideas you have for a title!!)


	2. Newt eyes, wolf's bane, and armadillo bi...

Disclaimer: Please see last chapter if ya really care that much!!!!!!

**~*Honorable Mentions*~**

**_ritmornow_****_~__ here's more now!! Lol_**

**_Evil Bagel~ __thanx__! Glad ya like that!!_**

**_ahem_****_~ __thanx__! Glad you liked that little joke!! Don't worry, now that we're out of school, I'll be writing a lot more!!_**

**_TI2guhER~ __glad to hear you like it so much!!!_**

**_LilyPrincess_****_~_**_ thanx for reviewing.__ I'm sorry to say that nothing really HAPPENED to Lily, other than the Marauders that is!_

Hey R&Rers. I just wanted to thank all of you guys cause without you, there wouldn't be much point in writing this story, would there?? Well, here ya guys go!

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"I can't believe this!" cried James, as the Marauders made their way down to the Great Hall later that evening. "I mean, I've scrubbed the Potions floor with a toothbrush, polished every award in the trophy cabinets, even cleaned the cages in the Owlry! But I've never had anything like this before!"

"I've gotta hand it to McGonagall. This is one of the most creative punishments since they chained students to the walls by their thumbs." Commented Remus. "I mean, you've had to apologize to your victims before, but you've never been forced to be their personal slave for a week!"

James glowered at Sirius.

"So when do you start?" asked Peter.

"I dunno. Whenever Lily finally wakes up." James looked depressed.

"Oh, come on! Cheer up Prongsie! This could actually be a little fun for you! I mean, you have to do _everything_ she says!" Sirius annunciated his last sentence by nudging James in the side and raising his eyebrows.

The three cracked up at this, while James stood there, completely appalled. "Ughhh, Padfoot! I can't believe you said that! And for your information, McGonagall specified that I could only be told to do things that follow school rules. So that's _completely_ out of the question."

"Well, if it wasn't, you have to admit that it wouldn't be half-bad. Lils is quite, shall we say, easy-on-the-eyes."

James just continued walking, appearing to be indulged in deep thought. It just so happens that what Sirius had just said to tease him, described perfectly what he had been thinking since the incident in Transfiguration. He wasn't sure what it was about her, but now he couldn't stop thinking about her. Like her eyes. He had never seen eyes such a beautiful green color before. They were like sparkling emeralds.

The rest of his friends took is unusual silence to mean they had offended him, and they decided to change the subject to something he'd be more likely to enjoy. So Sirius started off on the Chudley Cannons game the night before (James is a big fan).

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Lily walked through the portrait hole, and into the Gryffindor Common Room. Her head was killing her as a result of Madame Pomfrey going a little heavy on the sleeping draught she had given Lily once she had regained consciousness.

Lily looked around the room, and soon discovered her two friends sitting around a table that they had moved closer to the great roaring fire (although it was only late October, Fall had apparently decided it had been around for long enough, and had moved out of the way to make way for an early Winter).

"Good afternoon, Lily!" I hope you enjoyed you two-day nap!" greeted Jo brightly, as Lily walked over and took a seat, always that much happier once classes were finished for the day.

"I've been asleep for two days!?!" Lily cried, thinking of the piles of make-up work that had undoubtedly accumulated while she was taking her little snooze.

"I'm afraid so." Said Beth pityingly, understanding by the look on her friend's face exactly what was going through her mind.

"Brighten up Lily! Just think of those things you could make that little bugger James do for the next week!" Jo said cheerfully, attempting to cheer her up. Judging by the confused look on Lily's face, however, it didn't seem as if she had any idea as to what she was talking about.

"You haven't heard yet, have you?" asked Beth, surprised.

"Oh, then this will surely put a smile on your face!" began Jo enthusiastically. "For an entire week, starting as soon as McGonagall says, as long as your commands stay within school rules, James Potter must do everything you say!"

Lily sat there, stunned.

"He's practically your slave!" added Beth gleefully.

"Why?" managed Lily after a moment.

"That's what McGonagall gave him as a punishment for his last prank on you!"

Lily's pounding head finally began to comprehend what they were saying. "He has to do _everything I say??"_

"Yup, as long as your command stays within school rules." Parroted Beth.

A smile slowly spread across Lily's face. This could be fun.

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Good morning Miss Evans, Mr. Potter." Said Professor McGonagall early the next day, before classes had begun. "As you both know, I called you to my office to explain the course of James's punishment for his actions of Monday."

James looked very glum, and slumped in his chair. Lily, on the other hand, looked extremely perky, despite the fact that her and her friends had stayed up half of the night coming up with a list of chores for James to perform.

"James, for the next week, until," she paused to glance at the clock, "eight-o-clock Thursday morning, you must complete every task that she commands you to do, permitting that the task falls within school rules of course. If at any time you are ordered to complete a task that you feel would not be permitted by me, come and I will review the situation. Any questions?"

Lily shook her head energetically, eager to start. James, on the other hand, muttered a miserable "no".

"Alright then, head on to your classes."

The two exited her office. Once outside, Lily turned to James, and handed him her bag.

"What are you doing?!" asked James, irritated.

"Giving you my books to carry for me." Said Lily, matter-of-factly.

"But I'm already carrying my own! You can't expect me to carry around both of our bags all day!"

"Wanna bet?" was her reply.

James glared at her, but slung the bags strap over his shoulder.

"Good boy!" she said, and rewarded him with a pat on the head. "Now, come on! Or we'll be late for Potions."

The two marched into the class with Lily happily leading, and James trailing glumly behind. He began to make his way to the empty seat his friends had saved for him, but with a wag of her finger, Lily made him come and join her at the girls' table. James received few questioning glances at this, however, as most already knew of his enslavement to Miss Evans.

The class began, and Professor Botolph announced that they would be making an advanced sleeping draught that day. The class was greatly upset at this, for most had realized by now that the more 'advanced' the potions became, the more disgusting the ingredients were.

Botolph told the class the incredibly boring, yet brief, history of the potion, before passing out the ingredients. They consisted of three newt eyes, wolf's bane, munkwood, flesh-eating slugs, armadillo bile, and wormwood.

The girls wrinkled their noses as each of their own repulsive ingredients was deposited at their table. Even James couldn't help to raise an eyebrow at the disgusting display.

"You are to slice the slugs, grind the munkwood and wormwood, juice the newt eyes, and combine it all together in a mixture of the wolf's bane and armadillo bile."

With that, the Professor left the appalled students to their repulsive work.

"And I thought the last potion was bad!" commented Jo, eyeing the components that lay before her.

"Did that just move!?" asked Beth, pointing towards one of the slugs, shocked.

"No worries guys, this time it's not _our_ problem." Said Lily evilly, turning towards James.

"What?? No! No way! It's bad enough that I have to deal with these once! I'm not touching them three more!" he waved his hand dramatically, knocking an eye onto the floor.

"Ohhhh, yes you are!!" she returned.

"Fine! I'll take care of yours, but not theirs!" he motioned towards Beth and Jo.

"I don't think so! You're taking care of all of ours! That is unless you want to go have a nice little chat with McGonagall over it. I'm sure she'd love to double your sentence for you!" she answered slyly.

James scowled, but began slicing Lily's slugs. The sooner this week was over, the better, and it would probably go by a lot faster if he gave up trying to fight it.

Lily smiled, satisfied by the sweet feeling that came along with revenge.

The class continued on rather uneventfully, that is until Frank's cauldron boiled over as a result of too much munkwood, and swelled his hands. He yelped in pain, and Professor Botolph was forced to escort him up to the Hospital Wing, for none of the students wanted to go anywhere near him, for fear of accidentally touching the boils that had appeared, and therefore cause them to spread onto their own body.

Of course, the Slytherins, who shared this class with the Gryffindors, found all of this to be incredibly humorous. Once Botolph had left the room, Lucius, who had been struggling to contain his laughter up to this point, burst into a huge fit on the floor, and was quickly joined by the rest of the 5th year Slytherin population.

"Did you see his face?!" cried Malfoy between laughs. "I've never seen someone make such a git of himself! A monkey could learn every bit of magic that he has these last 5 years in a week! It's no surprise though, him being the mudblood that he is!"

"That's enough, Malfoy!" declared James, standing up for his fellow Gryffindor.

"And just what are you going to do about it, Potter?" asked Snape, muttering James's name as if it was a curse.

"What has Frank ever done to you?" asked Remus, joining his friend.

"Come to this school, that's what! Him and the rest of those dirty mudbloods should stay home with their slimy muggle parents!"

"You're one to talk about being slimy, Malfoy!" returned Sirius, taking his place at his friends' side.

"Besides, Sandra Lawrence is head girl this year, and John Reid is the Captain of the Ravenclaw quidditch team!" added Remus.

"Yeah, there are plenty of muggle-born students here who are already twice the wizard you could ever be!" said James.

"Of course _you_ would say that, being so _fond of them!" Lucias made a point of looking at Lily while saying this._

Though he was not sure why, this comment about Lily's parentage made James extremely angry. "Shut your trap Malfoy! Or I'll shut it for you!!"

"_Ooo_, I'm _soooo_ _scared! The great __James Potter is _threatening_ me!!" mocked Lucias, receiving another round of laughs from his supporters._

James couldn't think of a verbal reply to this, so he decided to simply lunge at Malfoy instead.

They fell to the floor, and James, undoubtedly being the stronger of the two, quickly gained the upper-hand.

He was giving Lucias a good beating, when Lily intervened.

"James! Stop it! Stop it right now!" she cried, tugging at his arm.

"You heard what he said about you and the rest of the muggle-borns!" grunted James, before returning to his prey.

"James!! I _order_ you to stop!" she commanded, continuing to tug on his arm.

James dropped Malfoy and turned around to face Lily. "Why? Why should I stop?! I've listened to him and the rest of his sick friends talk trash for the last five years, and I can't take it any more!!"

"He's not worth it!" James may not have listened to a simple reply like this, if it had not been for here eyes. They looked searchingly in to his own, pleading him to listen to her.

"You're right." He said quietly, wiping away a bit of blood that was running from a cut on his lip.

Crabbe and Goyle helped Malfoy to his feet. Despite his rather injured condition, Lucias still managed a witty remark at James's relent.

"Yes, James, you wouldn't want to upset your little mud-blood girlfriend!"

James would have lunged at Malfoy once more, had it not been for Professor ­­­­­­­­Botolph's return at that moment.

Botolph quickly dismissed the class, as it had already run late, and the students headed off to their common rooms to socialize for a few minutes before lunch.

Lily forgot about her authority over James, and grabbed her own bags and rushed off with her friends, wanting to get as far away from the scene as possible.

She was surprised at James's reaction to Malfoy's words. Lily had always been under the impression that she was merely a test subject for newly invented pranks. So why did he stand up for her like that?

Lily was brought back to the realm of reality as a strong hand was placed on her shoulder.

She started, and turned around to see who it was and was surprised to find James standing there.

"Are you okay Lily?" he asked, his concern showing in his deep brown eyes.

"Yeah……..I'm fine. Why do you ask?"

"I don't know, you just looked a little shaken up back in Potions. You even forgot to give me your books!" he said with a smile.

Lily laughed, but then grew solemn. "I don't know. I try not to let what they say bother me, I tell myself they're just a bunch of spoiled, ignorant jerks, but it still hurts."

"Then why didn't you let me fight him?" James asked, bewildered.

"Because you would have easily given him a beating."

This only managed to confuse James more.

"Look, James, if I had let you fight him, I would have allowed you to drop down to his level. All him and his friends do is pick on those who are younger, smaller, and weaker than them. And that's why I've given up too. I mean, if I wanted to, I could easily defeat him when it came to a battle of wit and tongues. Heck, half of my vocabulary undoubtedly consists of words that he's never even heard before, let alone ones that he actually knows the meaning of. But he's just not worth it."

Lily looked James in the face as she finished her small speech. He was looking down at her with a look she had never seen before. It was a mixture of admiration and final comprehension.

"I think I'm finally beginning to understand you, Lily." He said quietly.

This struck her as a rather odd remark, but she wasn't given a chance to question him about it because at that moment Beth and Jo came looking for her, ready to go on down to lunch.

Lily smiled at James before heading down to the Great Hall, leaving him to find and join the rest of the Marauders.

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"Soooo…..you and James seemed to be getting awfully close lately. " commented Jo, raising her eyebrows suggestively as the trio walked back from lunch.

"What are you talking about??" cried Lily.

"It _is_ true." Persisted Beth.

"Ohhhh, _please!!! You guys are completely blowing this out of proportion! We've only been hanging out together because he's my fricken slave for a week!" Of course we're going to be around each other more!!" insisted Lily defensively._

"Sure, you _have_ to be each other more, but you _don't_ have to enjoy each other's company!" continued Jo. "You smile more around him in a _minute than you normally do in a week!"_

"Why don't you guys listen to me?!? I DON'T LIKE JAMES POTTER!!!!!!" Lily yelled the last part out of frustration, and in the process startled several first years.

Beth and Jo looked at each other and said in unison "She likes him!"

Lily made an exasperated sigh. She had to admit that she had been spending a lot of time with James lately, and she had enjoyed most of it too. What was she thinking?? This was _James Potter_ after all. He's the self-centered ego-maniac who has done nothing but drive her crazy with his childish pranks for the past five years. Lily decided at that moment, despite how charming James had been earlier that morning, she was going to treat him like the jerk he was, and milk as much out of his punishment as possible.

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"So James, you seem to be taking this punishment rather well." Commented Sirius as they also made their way back from lunch a little bit later.

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"Well…. you spent every minute after you found out about your punishment moanin' and groanin', but now that you're actually serving it, you seem to be enjoying it!" concluded Remus.

"Now where the heck did you get that idea?" James asked crossly, putting up his defenses.

"Please James! I've known you for twelve years! Ever since Transfiguration on Monday, you perk up when ever you hear Lily's name, and beam like it's your birthday every time you're around her!" said Sirius.

"I don't know what you guys are talking about!" insisted James.

"Well then I guess I know you better than you know yourself!"

'That's a scary thought,' said James to himself. "What are you saying?" he said aloud.

"Are you really that ignorant?!" asked Remus, disbelievingly. "Even Peter has noticed it!!"

Peter nodded vigorously, looking very much like one of those bobble-head baseball players.

"Noticed what?!?"

The three boys answered together, practically yelling at James. "YOU LIKE HER!!!!!!!!!!"

This startled the same first years once more, and many began to fear the day when their own hormones began to kick in.

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Hey guys, I just wanted to tell ya that I'm still open to title ideas, but I might end up not needing them because of the twist I might make in the story line. Anyway, I hope u enjoyed, and don't forget to R&R!!!


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